Home Help: Find the best spot for carbon monoxide detector

Wednesday

Jan 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMJan 30, 2008 at 12:01 AM

Weekly home rail, with items on installing a carbon monoxide detector, insulated window coverings and more.

Home and Garden Q&A

Q. When installing a carbon monoxide detector, is it better to place it high or low in a room? In other words, is carbon monoxide heavier or lighter than air and where is the best place to first detect it?

A. Carbon monoxide is actually about the same mass as normal air (about .97 of air's specific gravity). However, it is generally carried in heated air, and will tend to be high up in the room. So a high mount is best. In a residence, your best placement is close to the sleeping areas. Putting a carbon monoxide detector next to the fuel burning equipment will just get you a lot of false alarms, because a lot of furnaces, water heaters, etc. will kick out a small amount of carbon monoxide on ignition of the burners. You also want to avoid high humidity areas, like right in front of a bathroom or kitchen door, as this is also a source of false alarms. – doityourself.com

Creature Comforts

HGTV.com offers tips on what to look for when purchasing a bird for a pet:

- Cockatiels make a wonderful first choice. They can talk and are inexpensive, relatively small, extremely intelligent and affectionate.

- Canaries make great apartment pets. Their sweet singing is not overly loud and the birds are small.

- Lovebirds are also great apartment pets because they aren't very noisy. Get a lovebird when it is very young, before it has sexually matured. This will increase the chances of the bird bonding with you.

- Parakeets are easily the most popular pet parrot. They can be tamed, have excellent speaking ability, learn quickly and can speak hundreds of words and phrases.

And how to keep your bird safe in your home:

- Deodorants, hair spray, perfumes, carpet deodorizers and fresh housepaint can be harmful to birds. Also, do not keep birds in the kitchen--fumes from nonstick pans can be toxic to them.

- Don't forget bird toys. A bored bird can be dangerous to itself and its environment.

Coming Soon to Your Home?

Fusing fashion with function, insulated window coverings help preserve precious energy resources. With a heavy-duty sueded liner that keeps cold drafts and sweltering heat out, they're an affordable way to help keep your utility bill from going out of control. – gaiam.com

How To: Identify and Locate Window Air Leaks

In order to stop the unwanted airflow through your home, you need to identify what is driving the air. Anyone who has felt a chilly draft on a windy day has detected a wind-effect leak--air forced through the house by wind.

Less obvious are the stack-effect leaks. Stack-effect leaks are caused by warm air rising through the house. The lost heated air sometimes travels in convoluted paths -- through cracks in the foundation, up through interior walls, through penetrations in ceilings.

Wind-effect leaks are easy to find. On a windy day, hold a coat hanger with tissue or kitchen plastic draped over it near your doors and windows. Fluttering indicates a wind-effect leak and will most likely need to be treated by the addition of weatherstripping.

Stack-effect leaks are tougher to find; you'll need to do a bit of detective work. Start by inspecting the foundation from the inside. Look for cracks in concrete or gaps in cinder blocks, paying particular attention to the mortar between blocks. Mark any defects for later caulking or fill them on the spot.

In the attic, inspect plumbing vent stacks and chimneys passing through to the roof. Attic access panels or doors are also problem areas. Look for open floor joist ends in kneewall attics and keep an eye out for dirty insulation. This can be a telltale sign of a leak. In the interior of the house, look for gaps between drywall and trim, around electrical and plumbing openings, and where recessed lights and hood fans penetrate the ceilings or walls. – hometips.com

Number to Know: 200

An animal protection group recently rescued more than 200 animals, including 26 hissing cockroaches and two bearded dragons, from an eastern Texas home, according to news reports. The animals also included 68 dogs, 16 rabbits, 15 guinea pigs, 13 gerbils, seven doves, two dwarf hamsters, two hedgehogs, an opossum and a pink toe tarantula.

Go Green

A tip from Treehugger.com on how to go green at home:

In addition to buying recycled goods, keep a keen eye out for recyclable goods. Whenever you purchase something packaged, think about how you can reuse the packaging, return it to a shipping store for reuse, or try to otherwise recycle it. If you get something likely to run down or wear out over time, such as an electronic component, give preference to the model that can be easily upgraded or cannibalized for parts so that you don't have to junk the whole thing if one part breaks. Products that are impossibly fused together are often called “monstrous hybrids” and are, while often cheaper up front, frequently unfixable and unrecyclable.

Kitchen Clutter

Over the next few weeks, we’ll give you some tips on how to de-clutter your kitchen, courtesy of HGTV.com.

Get more mileage out of your kitchen cabinets with some creative dishware rearranging. For example, stemware glasses can be stored by placing every other glass upside down. To begin, pull all your dishes out of your cabinets to see what you have to work with. The most frequently used items should be on the bottom shelves of a cabinet that's most convenient to you. Consider rearranging the cabinet's interior shelves to accommodate your different size dishes. If your shelves are stationary, nesting bowls and casseroles is a great space saver.

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